OF INSECTS IN GENERAL. 
3 1 * 
Cftntharides has been made fabfervient, will alone vindi- 
cate the utility of thole refearches which have been made 
concerning this part of the animal kingdom. There are 
ocher ufes to which infe&s have been applied, and that 
from the molt remote antiquity, which appear of a ftilt 
more Angular nature. Before the time of Theophrqfiu-s 
and of Pliny , certain kinds of them were employed in 
ripening the figs throughout the i (lands of the Archi- 
pelago * ; and it appears that the fame praftice (till fub- 
fids among the prefent inhabitants of thefe iflands +. 
There are two kinds of figs cultivated around the Medi- 
terranean-, the wild, and the domeftic. The former 
produces fruit feveral times in the year ; and in ii are 
produced certain worms, which are afterwards transform- 
ed into fmall flies. It is by the afliftance of thefe little 
animals that the domeftic fig is brought to maturity, 
which would otherwife drop from the tree in an unripe 
ftate. During the months of June and July, the peafants 
of thefe delightful climes are bufily employed collecting 
fuch of the wild figs as abound moft with thefe inferis, 
and in placing them near the cultivated fig, that they 
may co-operate with the climate in bringing it to ma- 
turity. Similar purpofes might probably be ferved by a 
judicious application of infefls to fruit in more northerly 
climates, were we acquainted with the proper fpecies. 
Thofe prunes, pears, and apples which are firft ripe, arc 
commonly found penetrated by worms. 
But there are other inducements to the ftudy of in- 
fers, of a nature totally different from thofe already 
mentioned ; inducements, founded not on any hope of 
advantage to be derived from thefe animals, but of al- 
leviating 
* Vide Plimi Hitt. Nat. 
•J Voyages de M. de Tourne&rte. 
